Denied basic right to education
Refugee children stranded in camps in Greece are being denied the right to an education. Despite Greek laws that insist on the right of migrant and asylum-seeking children to an education, severe policies and unfulfilled promises made by the government mean many are missing out on education, with some children having never had any formal education at all since leaving their home country.
A report by Human Rights Watch found that less than 15 per cent of more than 3,000 school age asylum-seeking children on the Greek islands have access to formal education.
A child’s legal right to education
According to Greek law, the children of asylum seekers have the right to access public education ‘for so long as an expulsion measure against them or their parents is not actually enforced’.
The UNHCR website offers a wealth of information to refugees on their right to education. According to the site, refugees and asylum seekers have the right to access education in Greece for their children, even if their paperwork is incomplete. The information details the processes and procedures that refugees need to go through to register their children for education and emphasises that accessing education while in Greece does not oblige them to stay in the country. However, the sad reality is that the number of children actually accessing education is not reflective of how accessible it is meant to be.
There are currently two main programmes available for the children of asylum seekers on the Greek islands; the first is a morning programme that helps children integrate with their Greek peers, the second an afternoon programme for children who cannot speak, read or write Greek or may have been out of formal schooling for a long time. However, these classes may not be enough to maintain the level of education needed to continue their education.
Moreover, the amount of time some children spend in camps without access to education will have serious long-term consequences. ‘Globally, research shows the likelihood that a child will drop out of school permanently increases with each missed semester.’
A lack of education has several impacts on children, especially those who have experienced recent trauma. It takes away any opportunity they may have for creating a routine or a sense of structure.
“Our main purpose is to get them out of the camps and into normality, through education, and not in a state of constant urgency,” a former education official said.
“Education can let them feel like a child again, because they have had such bad, adult experiences.”
The ongoing crisis in Greece
The loss of basic rights of refugees in Greece has been of concern for some time, and humanitarian standards have been branded ‘appalling’ in some camps; the Moria camp in Lesbos, built to house 1,800 people, was holding 6,250 migrants and asylum seekers at one point, but only had one functioning latrine.
Greece currently hosts approximately 50,000 refugees, most of whom will remain in the country. The UNHCR reports that in the first five months of 2018, around 11,200 people reached Greece by sea and 7,200 by land. In 2017, a total of 29,700 people arrived by sea and 5,600 by land.
Due to an agreement made by the European Union with Turkey, many Greek islands became processing centres for migrants arriving in Europe by sea. Until their requests for asylum are processed, they are not allowed to leave the country and can no longer legally travel further into Europe.
The Greek Asylum Service work to process asylum applications as quickly as possible. According to them the service received 58,661 asylum requests in 2017 and awarded protection to 10,364 people. Most of those requests came from applicants from Syria, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Of those requests, only 3 per cent are sent back to their point of departure, which is often Turkey. In turn, the refugee camps that are built to house a maximum of 2,000 people quickly become overcrowded and living conditions deteriorate.
The Human Rights Watch report documents nearly 17,700 asylum seekers, at least 5,300 of whom are children under 18, who are still stuck on Greek islands as of last week, while 14, 500 asylum seekers are living in overcrowded government-run camps with a maximum capacity of just over 6,300.
Stop the containment of refugees on the islands
Last month the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights said after a visit to Greece that the country must process asylum claims significantly faster and relocate asylum seekers from its islands.
Human rights NGOs have called for the end of the policy of containment of refugees on Greek islands as a solution to the crisis surrounding child education.